ICYMI - Wikipedia Is The Most Human Place On The Internet

·31 min·3 clips

Annie Rauwerda, creator of Depths of Wikipedia, reveals her childhood obsession with reading entire Wikipedia articles.

The episode begins with host Kate Lindsey introducing Annie Rauwerda, the creator of the Depths of Wikipedia Instagram account and author of an upcoming book. Annie shares her earliest internet memory: reading the entire Wikipedia article on milk as a child. They discuss her cat Pearl's origin story from Caroline Calloway. The main topic is Wikipedia's recent decision to ban AI content, made through consensus by volunteer editors. Annie explains that Wikipedia is run mostly by volunteers, with a foundation handling tech and legal matters. She describes the diverse roles of editors, including typo fixers, content writers, and administrators. A notable example is a Seattle man who has edited 'comprised of' 100,000 times. Annie got more involved with Wikipedia during COVID lockdown, starting her Instagram account to highlight unusual articles. She talks about the demographics of editors, which include precocious teens and retirees, often anonymous. The platform has changed over 25 years, with stricter rules and anti-vandal measures, but the layout remains similar. Wikipedia's reputation has shifted from being seen as unreliable to a trusted resource. Core content policies include neutral point of view, verifiability, and no original research. AI has caused issues like server strain from bot scraping and hallucinations in translations. Annie argues Wikipedia is the most valuable site on the internet because it's not commercialized and represents human effort. She shares favorite finds like the infinite monkey theorem experiment and list of unusual deaths. The episode ends with Annie promoting her live shows.

As heard by us

A lively conversation about the ordinary volunteers behind Wikipedia's strangest corners.

Wikipedia comes across as a huge, oddly intimate record of people paying close attention. Kate Lindsey's conversation with Annie Rewerda, behind Depths of Wikipedia, moves from typo edits and COVID lockdown to sexually active popes, stolen and missing moon rocks, and one…

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For a tour of sexually active popes, missing moon rocks, and the people who keep Wikipedia feeling stranger, smarter, and more human than you remembered.

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